A Different Reality
by TypeWriter Neko
Summary: When Sock's headache becomes something much worse, Sock wakes up to find himself in a different reality than the one he's known.
1. Chapter 1: A Constant Headache

Chapter 1: A Constant Headache

This is Sock. Sock has been feeling very tired lately.

Now for most people, feeling tired wouldn't be an issue. But Sock wasn't most people. In fact, Sock wasn't a person at all. Sock was a demon. See, all his life, Sock had been struggling with the urge to kill things. You might say he had some… slight homicidal tendencies. But this urge was so bad, that he ended up killing his parents. In his sleep. Sock decided that the next thing to do, after having accidentally sleep-murdered his parents, was to kill himself. And so, Mr. Sock Sowachouski found himself in hell, working for the owner of hell, Mephistopheles, as a demon sent to earth to haunt human lives. But demons weren't supposed to get tired. Or hungry. Or hurt. Or out of breath. Or sick. And yet, Sock was feeling very tired.

"Sock! You okay, kid?" Mephistopheles asked, watching a drowsy Sock stagger towards the portal to the human world. "You don't look very good. You alright?"

Sock glanced at the tall, red haired man. "I-.. I'm fine." He continued walking towards the portal. "Just a bit tired that's all."

Sock tried to work, but he just wasn't up to it. His job as a demon was to haunt a human until he could get them to take their own life, just as he had done. His current assignment was Jonathan Combs, a teenage boy with a total disregard for everything (Except sandwiches). Johnathan had proved to be a harder assignment then Sock had expected, with Jonathan carting for nothing, and Sock caring quite a bit for Jonathan (in the most romantic of ways). He crossed into the human world to see Jonathan waiting at the bus stop.

Sock yawned. "Good morning Jonathan," he muttered, "How's life? Probably not as good as being dead. Ha ha ha." Sock laughed half-heartedly at his own joke. He looked to the apathetic teen, only to realize that Jonathan had his headphones on and had not heard a thing Sock had just said.

Sock groaned, "Ugh, hello? Earth to Jonathan?"

Jonathan removed his headphones. "Oh hey. Did you say something?"

Sock groaned again. "Never mind," he said as the bus pulled up and Jonathan got on. Sock followed him, phasing through the walls and floors, such as a demon can do. He sat next to Jonathan on the bus, too tired to be his normal cheery self. And Jonathan noticed this. All throughout the day, Sock did not much more than tiredly follow around Jonathan.

"Are you okay?" Jonathan asked Sock on the bus ride home. He spoke in a whisper. "You've been acting really weird lately."

Sock rubbed his eyes. "I'm fine," Sock said, "I'm just tired. I've been tired lately. I don't know why but I'm sure I'll be fine."

Jonathan looked at him, with concern that Sock had never seen in him before. "Okay," Jonathan said, "If you say so..."

Over the next few days, Sock did not get any better. He was tired all the time, his vision started going blurry, and he started hearing noises, beeps and whispers that weren't really there.

"Maybe you should take a day off, kid." Mephistopheles told him, you don't look very good." Sock took a day off, but he didn't get any better.

"Shouldn't you go see a doctor?" Jonathan told him, "Maybe they can, I dunno, fix you?"

"Well I would, but there are no doctors in hell, demons shouldn't get hurt or sick. So I don't know what's wrong with me." Sock explained.

"Then I don't know what to tell you. Google your symptoms, that's what I do when I'm sick." Jonathan picked up his laptop, "Okay, what's wrong?"

Sock considered, floating around Jonathan's bedroom, "Well, I'm always tired, and not like exhausted, just really sleepy. I keep hearing things, muffled thigs, like whispers, beeps, footsteps, even if they aren't really there. My vision is going blurry, and fades around the edges. And I've got a bad headache." Sock stopped floating, "I don't know why. All this, it makes it seem… It's almost as if I was still… alive. It really doesn't make any sense."

Jonathan typed as Sock spoke. "That whole, "hearing things that aren't really there" thing isn't exactly a symptom of a physical medical condition; maybe the blurry vision thing means you need glasses? Do demons wear glasses? I don't know, all the search results just tell me you're going crazy…"

"I don't think it's that..." Sock looked at Jonathan quizzically, "but it's getting late, so I'm gonna go. See you tomorrow, Jonathan." Sock left the room with a slight blush on his face. It was unlike Jonathan to care about anything so much, especially Sock's wellbeing.

But as Sock walked to the portal, he felt even worse. His head pounded, he couldn't make out anything more than two feet in front of him. He went through the portal struggling to keep his eyes open.

Sock could barely see his surroundings in hell, his vision blurred and black spots and splotches swam in and out of his field of view. He felt incredibly light-headed, and was hearing the beeps and voices louder than he had ever heard him before.

Sock wasn't sure what happened then. Sock felt as if he were fainting. His vision went entirely black. His head pounded, and he felt a piercing pain in his chest.

Words and images swirled in his mind. _Did I just die?_ Sock thought, _I can't die, I'm already dead! If I die who will haunt Jonathan?_

The last thing he thought about was Jonathan.

Then he woke up.


	2. Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

Chapter 2: A Rude Awakening

Sock found himself in a hospital bed.

He couldn't move for a while, he seemed to be paralyzed.

He looked at his surroundings. The floor and walls were a white tile. On his right was a wall with a door. The window on the door peaked out to a hallway where people rushed back and forth. On his left was a light blue curtain, separating the room.

Also on his left was a giant machine, full of switches and buttons and blinking lights. Sock recognized the noises, the beeping sound, and the sound of muffled footsteps and voices. He had been hearing them for quite a while, and as it seems, they weren't all in his head. Tubes on the machines draped down on the bed, twisting and turning and sticking into his arms.  
Sock had no clue where he was. So, like what anyone would do when suddenly waking up and finding themselves in a new place with no clue as to what happened, sock began to scream and thrush about wildly. "Help! Help! Where am I? Get me out of here!"

The beeping on the monitor sped up with Sock's heartbeat. He tried to get up, but was too weak to do so. All he could do is kick and scream for help.

 _Where am I?_ Sock thought, _The last thing I remember I was I hell! What is this place, and –ow, what is this pain in my chest?!_

He made as much noise as he could, and in the process seemed to wake up something on the other side of the curtain. A groggy, deep voice groaned and said, "What the hell, man..." But Sock paid it no mind, he was in to state of panic to think clearly or hear it say, "Ugh, I'm going back sleep."

Footsteps approached the door. Sock could hear two voices outside talking.

"Are you sure?" one voice said, "Awake?"

"I'm sure I heard him!" said the other, "Go get her, I'll check on him."

Sock watched as the door creaked open. He froze and watched a tall, red-haired man enter the door way. He smiled upon seeing Sock.

"I was right. Looks like you decided to join us in the world of the living." The man said with a smirk.

"Living… I'm alive?" Sock wondered out loud. He had million questions he needed to ask, and they came out all at once.

"Am I really alive? How am I alive? Where am I? Why am I? How did I get here? What happened to me happened to me? How am I not dead, I thought I was dead? What's going on? Why am I hooked up to these machines? What happened-"

The man cut him off, "Woah slow down, kid, one question at a time! I'll answer your questions, if you answer some of mine, okay?'

Sock nodded, "Okay…" He couldn't help but feel that the man was familiar.

"I know you have a lot of questions, but I don't have very many answers, so I'll tell you as much as I know okay? Here goes:

"One week ago, a grave digger found you in his cemetery, in a hole in the ground. You had a stab wound in your chest, and a knife in your hand. The grave digger called 911, and you were taken to the hospital, this hospital.

"Well, you've been in a coma since then.

"We examined your wound, the good news is, nothing vital was injured, so you didn't die, and you probably won't. The bad news is, it's quite a deep wound, and it'll take a very long time to heal. You're stable, but pretty weak, so you're going to be bed-ridden. You'll have a pain in chest for a while too. And you lost a lot of blood. And I mean a lot of blood, you might feel lightheaded. We wanted to put you on pain medication, but we couldn't wake you up and ask them, you know? That's what the tubes are for, they're giving you pain medicine. We aren't entirely sure how your body is taking to them, but worst you could get with this medications a bad headache."

Sock was stunned. He wasn't dead. He never was.

The thought saddened him. Everything he had been through… he had dreamed? He never died and went to hell; he never became a demon, he hadn't met Mephistopheles, and he had only imagined Jonathan.

That last thought saddened him most of all.

"We don't know much, kid," the man said again after a period of silence, "We found you almost dead, and we are doing what we can to help you out. We don't even know who you are, or who is going to be paying for your treatment. So, if you don't mind..."

The man picked up a clipboard, "What's your name, kid?"

"My name is Napoleon. Napoleon Maxwell Sowachouski."

"Alright Napoleon," the man wrote on the clipboard, "How old are you?"

"I'm 16"

"Okay…" He wrote, then asked, "And where are your parents, Mr. Sowachouski?"

Sock paused. He had to wait a minute before being able to speak up again. "My parents are dead.." Sock hid his face, as if to say he didn't want to say anything more.

The red haired man looked at Sock, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. Sowachouski." He looked back to his clipboard and wrote a few more notes.

"Okay then." He finally spoke again, "That's all I need to know for now. But the doctor will have more questions for you, I'm sure. I'm your nurse, so let me know if you need anything." He walked towards the door.

"The nurse?" Sock began, "But you're..?"

"Mephistopheles. Please, call me Mephistopheles."

Sock was shocked again. He now knew why the red-haired man had seemed familiar to him.

"Well, if we're going to be all buddy-buddy about it..." Sock said, "You can call me Sock!"

Mephistopheles smiled, "Alright Sowachouski, Sock it is. Got any more questions for me before I go?"

"Just one." Sock said, "What's behind that curtain?"

Mephistopheles looked at the curtain, "Well you see, we don't have all that many rooms in this hospital, but we have a lot of patients, so some share rooms. We use these curtains as dividers. On the other side of this curtain is your roommate."

"I have a roommate?"

"Most patients do." Mephistopheles looked at a clipboard hanging on a wall by the curtain. "Says here his name is Jonathan." He walked back to the door. "Jonathan combs."

Socks heart stopped.

"She should be with you shortly." Mephistopheles walked out of the room.

Sock barely registered the last thing Mephistopheles said. He stared at the curtain with an important realization:

The boy he loved was on the other side.


	3. Chapter 3: An Attempted Interrogation

Chapter 3: An Attempted Interrogation

Sock stared at the thin blue curtain. His Jonathan was on the other side.

Sock wanted to pull the curtain away, he wanted to look behind it, he wanted to get some confirmation that he had not dreamed the entirety of Jonathan. But he was interrupted by the click of the door.

A dark skinned woman walked into the room. She wore a white suit and coat, and her dark purple hair was tied up messily. Sock dint find her familiar like he had Mephistopheles.

"Hello there," the woman said sweetly, "I'm your doctor. Call me Dr. Providence."

Sock looked at her, "Hello…"

She sat down at a chair next to Sock's hospital bed. "I'm glad to see you awake. We were very concerned about you. How do you feel? Do you have any questions for me?"

"I feel fine. And Mephistopheles answered most of my questions."

She smiled brightly at Sock. Her gold eyes seemed to glow. "Oh, good." She picked up the clipboard, "Let's see... your name is Napoleon? That's a lovely name… 16 years of age… stable condition… getting medication…" she suddenly stooped. She wore a look of concern. "Your parents… are dead?"

"Well, yes, they are." Sock told her. He hoped she wouldn't ask him how they died.

"How did they die?" she asked him.

" _Dammit_."

Sock was quiet. What was he supposed to tell her? He couldn't tell her that he killed them. So Sock stayed quiet.

"Don't want to talk about it right now? That's ok, I imagine its personal." She smiled at him and looked back to the clipboard.

After a minute she spoke again, "Now Napoleon, we don't know much about what happened to you, maybe you could answer some of my questions?" she flipped the page on the clipboard and held up a pencil.

"How did you get those wounds?" she asked.

"I was stabbed." Sock answered, "With a knife."

Providence gave Sock a quizzical look. "Yes, we know that, but I need to know exactly how that happened. Please Napoleon, but for us to be able to help you, we need your full cooperation."

Sock didn't know what to do; he couldn't tell anyone what he had done. _"This is exactly what I had been trying to avoid by killing myself! Dammit, what do I say, the truth? If I tell the truth, I'll probably get arrested or something… Dammit! What do I say?"_

"I can't remember."

Providence's confusion turned to worry, "You can't remember?"

"No," Sock lied, "I don't remember almost anything before waking up here. I can't remember who stabbed me, or why my parents are dead or anything." Sock tried hard to keep a blank face.

"Oh dear. This is going to be harder than expected." Providence murmured. She put the clipboard down, and thought a bit before speaking again. "Napoleon, we are nice people here, we aren't going to put a hurt boy out on the streets. We'll take care of you until you are better, and we will try to help you remember what happened to you.

But for this to work we need your total cooperation. That means you'll have to do what we say, you'll have to obey our rules, and you'll have to be completely honest, no lies. We will take care of you until we can get you somewhere better. Does this sound fair to you?'

Sock nodded, even if he had already broken one of Providences rules. "Yes, Dr. Providence sounds fair."

Providence stood up and walked to the door, "Good." Before leaving the room, she stopped and addressed Sock, "However, if we find out that you have been lying, or you break the rules, there, of course, will be consequences, Mr. Sowachouski, major consequences. It's a good thing you wouldn't lie to the people who are trying to help you, but still, something to note. Is that understood?"

Sock's heart stopped. Did she know? "Yes, understood."

"Okay then, Providence smiled, "Someone should come by to bring you food soon. I wish you a speedy recovery, Mr. Sowachouski. And if you need anything, let one of our nurses know, they'll be happy to assist you." She smiled one last time and walked out the door.

Sock starred at the spot she had stood in even after she had left.

What did he just get himself into?


	4. Chapter 4: An Awkward Encounter

Chapter 4: An Awkward Encounter

If Sock wasn't dead before, he was now.

If he had told Providence what he had done, he could have been arrested. Instead he lied to her, and if they found out the truth, he could get arrested, or worse. But if Sock told the truth now, and admit he had already broken the rules, he could get arrested, or much worse. And the truth was bound to come out eventually, and when it did, Sock would get arrested, or much much worse.

Before Sock's actions completely weighed in on his mind, the door opened again. A different nurse came in carrying two trays of food.

"Here you go," she said, placing the tray on Sock's lap, "Do you need help, or can you eat on your own?"

Sock stared at the food, but knew he wouldn't eat. The confusion, worry and guilt had made him nauseous. "I can manage." He muttered.

"Alright then." The nurse picked up the other tray of food, and walked to the other side of the blue curtain. Sock stared at his tray, and had not noticed she had left until he heard voices coming from the other side.

"You weren't at the dining hall.." The nurse's voice said

"I'm not hungry."

Sock recognized the voice immediately. It really was Jonathan on the other side of the curtain.

Sock sat up in his bed as much as he could, wide eyes and shallow breathing. He watched the silhouette of the nurse place a tray on the bedside table.

"You have to eat something.." The nurse's voice said.

"I told you," Jonathan said, "I'm not hungry." He sounded like he had just been woken up.

"Please try to eat." The nurse said. "You can't get healthy if you don't eat.."

"No," Jonathan said, "I can't _get healthy_ either way."

The nurse sighed and walked out of the room. She didn't notice how shocked Sock looked as she left.

Slowly, Sock tried to stand up. He threw the blankets off himself and moved his feet over the edge of the bed. His entire body ached and his chest erupted in pain as he put his feet on the floor and stood up, but he paid it no mind. He stood up and held onto the machine he was hooked onto for support.

Sock looked down at his feet and noticed for the first time that he was wearing a hospital gown. He briefly wondered what had happed to his clothes, but soon pushed the thought out of his mind. He had more important things to worry about at the moment.

He began to walk towards the curtain, which proved to be difficult. Every step hurt, every muscle ached, but eventually Sock made it to the blue curtain.

Sock stopped and stared once more. He had been spending an awful lot of time staring. He finally reached out to the curtain and took a deep breath. He pulled it back and looked on the other side.

In a near identical half a room to his, Sock watched a half-asleep figure breathing slowly underneath the blankets, which he could only assume was Jonathan.

Sock remained frozen, breathing quietly until he finally gathered the courage to simply mutter:

"Jonathan?"

The sleeping figure stirred and sat up, back facing Sock. The figure turned around and faced Sock. Sock gave a half smile, happy to see Jonathan again.

Although he looked so different, Sock could barely recognize him. His hair was no longer dyed blond on the top, and it was messy and unkempt as though he'd never seem a hairbrush. Jonathan himself was messy and unkempt, and his skin was incredibly pale. He looked weak, and bony, and it was evident he hadn't been eating or sleeping well. He looked awful.

Sock's smiled faded and was replaced with a look of concern. Before he could say anything else, Jonathan began to speak.

"Oh, it's you."

"Its… me?" Sock said, trying to smile again.

The two stared at each other in silence.

Finally, Jonathan spoke again. "What do you want?"

Sock's smile grew a bit at the feeling of Deja-vu. "I'm a de- I mean…. I… just wanted to say hi… uh… hi?" he gave Jonathan a small unsure grin.

Jonathan sighed and rolled his eyes slightly. He lay back down, facing away from Sock.

Sock took another step into the room, "I'm Sock," he said, "Oh, maybe you already knew that.. Or, also Napoleon, maybe you knew that…"

Jonathan continued to ignore Sock as Sock continued to walk into the room, wincing at every step. He finally sat down on the chair next to Jonathan's bed and smiled at him.

Jonathan glared at Sock and said, "Now what do you want? And why are you smiling at me like that?"

Sock's smile began to fade, "I… just wanted to talk to you. And I'm smiling because I'm happy to see you again…"

"See me again?" Jonathan questioned. "… never mind, I don't care.

Look, _Sock_ , you seem like a friendly guy, but I'm not. That curtain is there for a reason and it's to keep you on your side and to keep me on mine. So stay on your side, and leave me alone. I'm trying to sleep."

Jonathan rolled over and went back to sleep.

Sock's smile was gone and he walked back to the other side of the curtain, "Okay… sorry…"

Sock sat back down on his bed and was quiet. Not only did Jonathan look different, he acted different too. He was used to Jonathan looking healthy, and acting at least a bit friendly towards him. But this Jonathan was nothing like the one he knew. This wasn't the Jonathan he loved.

Sock rolled over and tried to sleep.

He hoped Jonathan couldn't hear him crying.


End file.
